Crucial highlights include sovereign debt woes in Europe and growth prospect in the US and China, all of which, are major importing nations. In technical terms, analysts said selling in the FBM KLCI is still prevalent as the index failed to close higher than the 1,600 level after April 4.

“This comes on the back of a “negative divergence” in the daily relative strength index (RSI) where the daily RSI reading for the April price peak is below that of early March.

“Nonetheless, the index’s upward trend in the past six months is by no means over,” OSK Research Sdn Bhd technical analyst Mohammad Ashraf Abu Bakar wrote in a note.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI fell 0.24 point to 1,596.93. Across the exchange, some 217 million shares worth RM171 million were traded, leading to 171 gainers versus 189 decliners.